Tides run everything worth doing here: when the 4x4 beach is wide enough to drive, when the fishing turns on, when the shelling is best, and when the sand you parked on stops being sand. Rather than duplicate tide tables here, we keep the live, station-accurate charts on our dedicated tide site — built from NOAA data and checked nightly.
Live Outer Banks tide charts
- Carova & the 4x4 beaches — the chart to check before driving north of the pavement. our Carova tide chart
- Duck & the northern beaches — Duck tide chart
- Cape Hatteras — surf fishing and ORV timing. Hatteras tide chart
- Ocracoke — beaches, harbor, and ferry planning. Ocracoke tide chart
- Storm and wind-driven water levels — when the forecast turns, this matters more than the tide table. OBX water levels
- All stations and the full site — OBX Tide Charts
The one tide rule that matters
If you’re driving the beach, plan around low tide and know when it turns — a rising tide narrows the drivable sand fast, and the ocean does not care about your schedule. For fishing, the moving water on either side of the tide change usually beats slack tide. For shelling, walk the low.
(OBX Tide Charts is part of our family of Outer Banks sites — see our ownership disclosure.)
Curious what the water actually feels like once you’re in it? Our live water temperature guide tracks NOAA readings from Duck, Oregon Inlet, and Hatteras in real time.